War and Pieces Act 2

Moving on, with a new system

Character Creation

For those of you unfamiliar with the Ironclaw system, it uses “skill levels”, a bit like Savage Worlds, where each point of a skill or stat is a higher die to roll for that. So if you have 1 point in a skill, you roll d4, 2 points is a d6, 3 is a d8, 4 a d10, and 5 a d12. You roll all relevant stats (usually a skill+stat) and take the single highest number, which will always be from 1 to 12. If a skill is higher than 5 points, it loops around again, so 6 ranks is a d12 and a d4, 7 ranks is a d12 and a d6.

This means that nobody will ever roll higher than a 12 or lower than a 1, no matter how skilled or talented you are, but it can improve the odds.

Cast and Career each have three skills assigned to them. The die a character has in that stat will add to those three skills. This does not increase the skill level; it is added as a separate die. So if a character has 4 ranks in Deceit (d10) and two points in Moonsilver (d6), they have d10+d6, NOT d12+d4

At character creation, every character gets:

6 stats (body, speed, mind, will, cast, career) and a die to put in each

24 skills, and 13 points to distribute among them

12 automatic Gifts, which will be listed below

3 free Gifts, which can be any gift on the body slots list (if you want something that is not on the list, discuss it with the GM)

Cast:
Every Alchemical Exalt, or Champion, has a cast. This represents how much of your primary material you contain. An Orichalcum-cast with a lot of Orichalcum in them is naturally better at the skills that the metal enhances. Cast adds to three skills and assigns three automatic gifts, listed here.

Career:
Every sentient being in Autochthonia has a career. This represents the role for which that being was designed. This can be something like “medic” or “soldier”, an obvious task for which they were made, or something like “scavenger” or “model”, a set of skills that a character just happens to be talented at which they perform better than their designated role or which they learned in absence of a designation (which almost never happens for Champions). Career adds to three skills and assigns three automatic gifts, listed here.

Equipment:
Equipment is somewhat flexible due to gifts. However, if a character does not possess any gifts which assign equipment, they still receive 5 points of “default” equipment. Each point can be assigned to a weapon (adding 1 to damage) or armor (adding 1 to the soak rank), or 2 points can be assigned to a weapon to add the Impaling, Critical, or Concealed trait. No more than 4 points may be assigned to a single weapon (4 or 2 and a special trait) or armor (d10 soak), though more than one weapon may be purchased. A gun or crossbow is a special case, and is always a +1 Critical weapon (costing 3 points). Assume sufficient basic ammunition is available, but limited amounts of special ammunition may be requisitioned while at a home base if available. (Gonna add a new page for this stuff soon!)

Gifts:
Every Alchemical character receives the following 12 gifts automatically, which do not take up body slots:

3 cast gifts

3 career gifts

Literacy

Personality (any)

Language: Autochthonic

Local Knowledge (home nation)

Combat Save

Increased Trait (any)
Additionally, every character receives any 3 gifts for which they meet the requirements. These do take up a body slot unless otherwise stated.

If digital character sheets are available, they can be used (though keep in mind the house rules). Otherwise, here is all the required information: